Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. plans to boost
the number of junior investment bankers it employs by about 10
percent and provide them with “protected weekends” to reduce
their workload, a person familiar with the matter said.

Jeff Urwin, the New York-based company’s global head of
investment banking, announced the changes on an internal
conference call today, said the person, who didn’t say how many
people would be affected and asked not to be identified because
the new policies aren’t public. Jennifer Zuccarelli, a
spokeswoman for JPMorgan, declined to comment.

All of the major Wall Street firms are planning to increase
investment-banking staff in 2014, according to Jeanne
Branthover, the head of financial-services recruitment at Boyden
Global Executive Search in New York. They are also trying to
protect their best employees from poaching as average pay at the
biggest banks declines.

“Business is better and they’ve stayed lean for so long,”
Branthover said. “People are burned out.”

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which lowered the amount it set
aside for employee compensation by 5 percent in the first nine
months of the year, said in October that it was discouraging
investment-banking analysts from working weekends.

Morgan Stanley abandoned an attempt this year to block
first-year bankers from talking with recruiters for outside
firms after employees complained, people with knowledge of the
matter said in April.

Deal Volume

At JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank, Urwin is increasing
staff worldwide in 2014 to handle the firm’s growing volume of
deals, the person said, adding that some of the added employees
will include support staff.

Junior investment bankers, defined as analysts and
associates, will get one weekend a month starting in January,
when they won’t be expected to work either from the office or
home or to answer calls or e-mails, the person said. Employees
will be allowed to choose which weekends are protected and can
defer them to future months.

Dealbreaker reported the decision to reduce weekend duties
yesterday.

The market for talent is highly competitive and banks are
hoping that more flexible work conditions will help them recruit
and retain top employees, Branthover said.

“They’re pouring a lot of money into these people to make
them as good as they can be,” she said. “They don’t want to
lose the good ones.”